Powerfull Women in Business

Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business

President and CEO of IBM, Ginni Rometty, tops Fortune magazine's 2012 list of 50 most powerful women in business. Rometty has been at IBM for 31 years and is the company's first female CEO. The 55-year-old helped develop IBM's five-year growth plan that she's been in charge of since she started her post on Jan. 1. Last year, Rometty ranked seven on Fortune's list.

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Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business

President and CEO of IBM, Ginni Rometty, tops Fortune magazine's 2012 list of 50 most powerful women in business. Rometty has been at IBM for 31 years and is the company's first female CEO. The 55-year-old helped develop IBM's five-year growth plan that she's been in charge of since she started her post on Jan. 1. Last year, Rometty ranked seven on Fortune's list.

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Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business

Indra Nooyi, the chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, keeps her spot at number two on Fortune's list. Last year she grew PepsiCo's net revenue 16 percent and cut the workforce by three percent. The 56-year-old is pushing PepsiCo's strategy to invest in healthier products for consumers. PepsiCo launched Pepsi-Next, a mid-calorie cola, in March.

Courtesy PepsiCo

Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business

Hewlett-Packard's president and CEO, Meg Whitman, jumps six spots to number three on Fortune's list. Whitman is faced with trying to revamp the company whose shares were down a third this year. The 56-year-old nearly doubled the size of HP's design team and promised sleeker PCs for the holidays.

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Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business

Irene Rosenfeld dropped three spots to number four on Fortune's list. Kraft Foods' chairman and CEO pushed for the split of Kraft into an $18 billion North American grocery business and a $35 billion global snacks company. The split is set to happen Oct. 1 and Rosenfeld, 59, will head the snacking side, Mondelez International.

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Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business

CEO of DuPont, Ellen Kullman, is shifting the focus of the 210-year-old company toward food and fuel and away from chemicals. In the last year, she acquired Danish food-enzyme company, Danisco, and sold DuPont's autopaints business for $4.9 billion. The company has returned 141% since the 56-year-old became CEO in 2009.

Courtesy Dupont

Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business

Patricia Woertz, chairman and CEO of ADM, dropped three spots to number six on Fortune's list. In January, Woertz announced an elimination of 1,000 jobs in order to reduce annual expenses by $100 million. In 2011, the company reported a 30% increase in revenue. Woertz, 59, also serves on the board of Proctor & Gamble.

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Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business

Chairman and CEO of Xerox, Usula Burns, is tasked with trying to turn around the company in the new digital and paperless era. She has added services such as managing electronic ticket transactions, road tolls and parking meters which bring in half of all revenues. Burns, 54, started at Xerox in 1980 as an intern and is the first African-American woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.

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Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business

Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, is Mark Zuckerberg's right hand gal. She spearheaded the company's $100 billion IPO in May and became Facebook's first female board member. Sandberg, 43, is a major supporter of women in high-profile jobs. She'll share her story in a 2013 book set to be titled "Lean In."

Fortune's 50 most powerful women in business

Safra Catz, president and CFO of Oracle, comes in at number 10 on Fortune's list. Catz, 50, has facilitated the $1.9 billion purchase of Taleo, a human-resources software company, and the $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems. She's also in charge of Oracle's M&A machine which announced 10 deals equaling more than $5 billion in the last year.